SDSS 1212

L
ike Magnetic Accretion, this is an illustration of a type of cataclysmic binary called a
polar. However, this is a polar with a difference, for there is a sub-stellar object called a brown
dwarf (left) in orbit around the magnetic white dwarf (right). In all other known polars, it is a
red dwarf rather than a brown dwarf which is donating material to the white dwarf. This image was
commissioned by astronomers at the University of Leicester, UK.